A RuneScape Journal
by Raikana
Summary: This began as a plot bunny my boyfriend got me started on, and I had so much fun writing it that I showed it to him as soon as I was finished. When he loved it, I decided it may be worthy of releasing to the general public. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

My name is Raikana Do'Urden, foster daughter to the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden. Or at least, that's my story in most of the areas I live in. I recently got relocated to a strange world known as RuneScape. I haven't been journaling recently, and so this shall not be a full account of my time here, yet I feel that my friend Spartan1128 is correct in that it should be rewarding, or at least entertaining, to begin to chronicle my exploits here.

To begin with, it seems no person may share a name with another, and since there was already a Raikana living in RuneScape, my name has been changed to Ra1kana for reasons I have yet to understand. It's still read the same way, and my friends still call me Raikana, so the change is hardly noticeable, though I continue to find it strange when random events occur.

"Random events?" you ask. Certainly. That's what it's called when someone you have never seen before teleports to a spot right beside you, addresses you by your full and proper name, and pleads for your help. Of course, the first one of these encounters I had, I really did not know what was going on. It was moments after my arrival in this strange world. An old man appeared, handed me a magic box, and vanished. Upon trying to open the box I was met with a puzzle that I also did not entirely comprehend and to my horror the box replicated itself in my pack when I failed to solve it. I had to solve the puzzle boxes multiple times before I received my reward, an uncut sapphire. Of course, the next random event that occurred was a pirate demanding to talk to me, and I was confounded as to what to say, so he attacked me. Spartan found that rather amusing, and I was not pleased he had failed to warn me that the pirate would attack.

He did keep me company as I trained in combat skills, however, which I did appreciate as I was annoyed to no end that I'd somehow forgotten all my previous skills and knowledge. I felt weak and vulnerable, and many things would attack me. He instructed me to begin training on chickens, a task I found preposterous. The area he led me to was populated by a grand total of three hens. I killed one and scavenged bones, raw meant, and feathers from it. He then instructed me to bury the bones for prayer experience. I looked at him askance and he explained the sheet of magic paper that was stuck to the inside of my pack, easily accessible at any time. Apparently there were many things I had need of training in. This sheet of paper explained what level I was currently at in any given skill; a sort of ranking sheet amongst residents of this world. And for every level you gained, you gained more expertise in that skill. Of course, the only way to train a particular skill was to use it, only sensible.

After I understood that, I returned to killing chickens, surprised to find that there were, once again, three of them in this pen. I suspected one had simply been hiding and I had missed it. Preposterous to think… I do happen to be a Ranger. Oh wait… I don't have any levels in ranged yet. I killed the chickens and turned to Spartan expecting him to lead me to another pen, but I was left perplexed as all I found where he had stood only moments before was a brightly colored egg… that chuckled at me. Clearly I wasn't in Aber-Toril any more. The egg shifted back into my friend and he explained that he'd helped the Easter bunny one year a while back and been rewarded with a ring that offered him that utterly useless skill. He pointed at the chickens, three of them, and reminded me to keep training or things would keep trying to kill me.

Now wait a minute… I'd killed them all, had I not? Where did these come from? Thoughtfully, I dispatched these as well, watching in amazement as a few moments later, there appeared three more chickens in their place. What sort of world was this where there were always chickens in your pen no matter what misled adventurer decided to whack them for small amounts of experience points and raw meat that could be cooked over a fire? Magic of the strangest sort, and everyone in this world simply accepted it as life! I would need to be more observant.

I was further bamboozled as Spartan handed me an ax and instructed me to chop down a nearby tree "a few times" in order, of course, to gain experience. I set to chopping away at the thick trunk, rewarded with ready made logs stacked neatly in a pile as soon as I felled it, which rattled my nerves a little. As I placed them in my pack and stowed my ax, Spartan shook his head and bade me wait a moment, then cut it down again. I'd need the experience. I looked dubiously at the stump of the tree for a few moments, then once again became rendered speechless as the tree simply reappeared as if I had never touched it. So, it was not only livestock that magically replenished, but the very landscape refused to be changed.

Days have passed and I have completed various quests for different people. I have helped a man named Romeo with his love, Juliette. I have helped goblins – goblins! I normally kill the things on sight! – with various fashion woes. I have re-forged a sword for a squire who had lost his knight's sword. I have killed a vampire, rescued a man turned into a chicken, found a pirate's hidden treasure, and rescued an Arabian Prince, among other things. Perhaps I shall return to the topic of the quests I performed at a later date. Yet there are more areas of this world I must write down lest I forget at some point just how strange they are.

It took me some time to comprehend one such feature this world has to offer, notably the banking system. Apparently, when you awake in this strange world, you already have a bank account and you may access it from any bank. Yes… any bank. Somehow your items are retrievable from any banking location you visit. I've tested this. I will put my items in the bank, and travel as far across the land as I may go, and my items are waiting for me in the next bank I visit. I have no idea how this works, I can only assume that the banks must be magical and that when you deposit an item, you're depositing it in another dimension, a pocket plane, or your own personal bag of holding that stays there at the bank, and each bank has the means to access it. That makes some convoluted sort of sense. Of course, there are limited amounts of items I may keep in my bank, yet I believe this is due to my being a lower class of citizen. I am not referred to as a member, as Spartan is. There is a limit even on those people called members as far as items go, everyone may only carry 28 items in their inventory. Some items "stack" and so you may carry several items of a kind while they only take up one space, but for the most part, there's a very limited amount of items you may carry. Which must be why the bank is as developed as it is.

One final note to cover, which will lead me to today's tasks: I have discovered that all natural resources replenish at some rate. Some things replenish faster than others. For example, plain trees reappear much faster than oak trees do. This carries down into the dwarven mines, as well, where you may mine clay, tin, copper, iron, coal, gold, mithril, and adamant ores, in order of difficulty and speed. Clay, then, is obviously the fastest to mine and the fastest resource to replenish, while adamant is the slowest in both regards. Yet, adamant ore sells for much more gold than clay, and yields far more experience. Certain levels of mining skill are required in order to mine certain materials, and the higher the skill above what is needed, the faster you may mine that material. There are also different levels of pickaxes, starting from bronze, the cheapest and least effective, up to rune.

So, here I am, mining level 54, finally. As I swing my pick axe for what must be the millionth time, I feel the fire of scorpion venom digging into one calf, making the infected area burn. Of course the cursed thing can find that one chink in my armor. Oh yes, there are scorpions down here. Most wisely avoid me, since I'm far over twice their combat level, yet there are two that continually hunt me down, with some sort of phoenix complex. I kill the most recent one with my pick and return to hacking at a rock that's just replenished its iron supply. I've picked a mining location close to the exit of the mines that leads to my chosen hometown of Falador. There are four iron mining sites in this mine. One would think that would be enough. One would be wrong, of course.

There are six people down here currently. Oh, five, one of them just disappeared for a random event. He'll be back shortly. Of these five, one has laid claim to a coal site just south of me. He has the skill to beat anyone to the coal in each rock, and so people have given up trying to mine in that site for the time being. Another person isn't mining, he's simply running around killing scorpions, which has ceased to make sense to me. They don't have enough hitpoints to give him enough experience, he's a higher level than me, and they don't drop anything for you like other monsters will. Silly person… but he's saving me time by killing some of the scorpions that might have come after me. The third person is doing laps around the area, mining anything that's available, and generally giving me a hard time by mining the iron I'm trying to mine. The forth person, a woman, is mining at the iron site just west of me, and the fifth is somehow managing to mine coal at the site just beside me. Ah, that sixth person is back, which is upsetting. He's trying to mine the same iron I am. Luckily, I'm a higher level than him and can manage to get most of the iron before he does. Until, of course, that cursed scorpion returns.

Which it just did. Right beside me. Of course. I sigh and kill the thing again, and have to muscle my way back into the flow of getting my iron before this guy does. Finally, I have a full inventory of iron ore, and I hike back to the bank to deposit it all. I recently sold over one thousand six-hundred of these raw chunks of iron, and I now have over 500,000 gold. Or 500k as people say here in RuneScape. So, I'm down to under two hundred chunks of iron. No worries, though, I'll get a lot more before I reach the level I want to be. I have to be level 60 before I can get into the mining guild. Which, while ordinarily I wouldn't think to become a miner, much less a coal miner, the guild contains the largest number of coal mining rocks in the world, and very few people are actually ever in there. The entrance is very close to the bank. And coal sells for a lot of money because everyone needs lots of it to make much of anything in the smithing skill.

I walk through a row of about 25 camp fires to get to the bank. Oh yes, you can walk through camp fires and it doesn't do a thing to you. And people make lots of them in a row like this to, obviously, gain fire making experience, what else? These types of rows normally occur by banks because people go woodcutting and store their logs in the bank, then make lines and lines of fires while chatting and hanging out with buddies. An interesting method, and one which I haven't begun to practice yet. I want to get into the mining guild. As I deposit my iron, check for deposits from the Grand Exchange, a feature I shall explain at a later date, I think about another restriction this strange world has. Apparently I'm in a "no fighting zone." This does not mean I cannot fight monsters, or even town guards. (Town guards were lovely training when I was level 30 something and after I'd gotten over my distaste of taking unnecessary life. You learn that they, like any monster, simply replenish. There are several human and dwarven characters that are simply like monsters, and so the only true "life" are those residents of this world known as players.) I am in a "no PvP" or "no player verse player" area, which means I cannot attack fellow players. A truth that has been a plague to me on several mining trips where skillers (players that train one or two skills only and leave combat skills low) manage to mine all the rocks that I'm trying to mine before me. If I could have I would have taught them a lesson they wouldn't soon forget. Alas that I cannot. I know Spartan laughs every time I grumble about that, too.

So, I believe I have covered much of what I meant to. Now I must return to the arduous task of mining iron. Only 14 loads until my next level…

_Author's Note: In case any of you are wondering, yes my RuneScape username is Ra1kana. However, I am a shy soul and keep my private chat friend only. If you want to let me know you liked my story, please leave a review here on , as I love to get feedback. However, I do not just friend people because they liked my stories. I don't mean to cause any hurt feelings, it's simply a security measure I've had since day one of playing around on the internet. Please understand I hold every one of you fine readers in the highest regard, and I truly hope you enjoy my pointless ramblings. Thank you all for reading._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Monkeys, Dragons, and Ranged Training

I should have known that when Spartan1128 showed up as a monkey, things would only get more interesting.

Heading back to my usual spot in the mines I began to, once again, hack away at the renewable chunks of iron embedded in the sturdy rocks. The day was quiet, there were only three of us down here, and one was a ranger training with his bow, which suited me fine, he kept the scorpions off my back. I thought wistfully of my time in my homeland where I was one of the better Rangers in the area. Bows had been much more practical. I'd really all but given up my bow here in this strange world, I could not hold my own with it, and had taken up the scimitar in its stead. The weight of my green hued adamant armor bore down on me as I swung my pick with a familiar rhythm. I missed being a Ranger.

Hours passed and I was finally up to level 55 in my mining skill and taking a load of iron ore to the bank to wait until I got around to selling it all. At the bank there was a man wearing a Ranged skill cape. I stared in awe and envy. This cape marks him as a master archer, and I began to desperately want one of my own. I mentioned this to Spartan as he showed up by my side (he'd foregone the monkey appearance for the time being) and he chuckled, bidding me to have fun trying. Everyone knows Ranged is a difficult skill to master in this world, and those people who master it are greatly respected. Of course, this fact just makes me want that cape even more.

I packed up my mining equipment and grabbed the necessary runes to teleport to Varrock, and from there I go to the Grand Exchange. The Exchange is a large, open area just West of the Varrock palace where several hundreds of people trade anything from clay to dragon armor. Here is where I sell my iron ore, and here is where I buy a set of leather armor. I'm only level 15 Ranged, and so I must buy much of the most basic of equipment, but I am content and I began my trek to the Goblin village North of Falador. I felt so light and free now unencumbered by stiff metal armor that I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could manage, arriving at the Goblin village in record time.

Luckily for me, goblins also replenish at an alarming rate, while also refraining from causing trouble. They are easily picked off. I have high levels in Defense, Strength, Attack, and Hit Points, making this simply a matter of target practice. By the end of the first day I had reached level 30.

Now, Spartan agreed that this was all well and good, but he remained unimpressed. I reached level 39 and he began to laugh and say that it would do me little good if I had not slain the dragon on Crandor island, yet, as no one would consent to sell me green dragonhide armor, the mark of a level 40 ranger. And so, once again, I donned my green tinted metal armor, picked up my rune scimitar and dragonfire sheild, and began to hunt the dragon. I'd already found the three map pieces, and so I simply needed to buy a boat and find a captain brave enough, or desperate enough, to take me to the island of the dragon.

The boat I found and bought was, of course, broken. And the captain I found, of course, desperate. Nevertheless, I repaired my boat, and paid my captain, and made my way to the island. We were almost there, I could see land, and the dragon attacked. A fierce green monster, it set our boat ablaze and we wrecked on the island not far from the dragon's cave. Making my way closer to the terrible beast, I mused over the fact that I had possibly not brought enough of the life giving lobsters Spartan had sold to me…

All too soon it was too late to worry about that. The green scaled monster rose terrible above me in its lair and I cowered behind the fireproof shield. Tongues of flame reached me still, and I jabbed at the monster when I could, stuffing lobsters in my mouth as I felt my life being burned away. The fight was long and vicious but in the end I prevailed, removing the head of the giant beast, and taking a moment to regain my composure. I didn't take long, I wanted to be gone from this place. And so, finally, I returned to Varrock to claim my reward. I was given experience in my strength and defense skills, which jumped up to level 49 each to be at a level with my hit points which had risen due to my ranged training, and my combat level had risen to 59 as well. I was immensely pleased with myself. Finally I am beginning to be the warrior I am used to being again.

I donned my new set of rune armor and set out to gain an attack level to boost my combat level to 60 when I felt an odd tugging sensation all around me. "Uh? Help!" I called, but too late, I was transported to what I could only assume was the Abyss. Solving a minor riddle they presented me with I was taken back to the area I had just left and given an apology from the Abyssal Services Department. I chuckle as I write this for it shall never cease to amuse me the things that happen for no reason here.

Spartan1128 is a monkey again as I return to the bank and change into my dragonhide armor to train, once again, with my bow.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Of Guthix and Levels

Days have passed since my last journal entry. I have taken the time and the money to gain levels in all of my available skills, some of the less exciting being woocutting, firemaking, fishing, and cooking. I have finally reached the magic level required to teleport to Falador, so I can now travel quickly between my two favorite cities. I have discovered the joys of "rune running," a process by which you purchase or mine several blank runes, also called pure essence and take them to an old alter where you can bind a specific type of power into them. Currently I'm gaining experience by running to the water alter south of Lumbridge. I'll need to craft more air runes soon, however, as I need them for teleport spells. I've also discovered a love of the crafting skill which, though expensive, reminds me much of my home and my childhood. I cannot fletch here, like I would back home to work out my tension and anger, for fletching is only available to members, of course. Ah well.

I notice that I'm rapidly running out of gold, and I voice my complaints to Spartan1128. He laughs and tells me to return to mining again if I'm really so concerned. I have no desire to return to those tunnels before I'm level 65, only one combat level away now. In response to the inevitable question of why I tell him that I cannot stand to be attack by scorpions one more time and must have one more level before they'll ignore me. He then lists off several ways to train quickly: the Stronghold of Safety has large cockroaches that drop decent items and a good amount of gold, hill giants in the Edgeville dungeon offer a good amount of experience for a relatively low level monster, moss giants on Crandor island offer good drops and lots of experience, and the Fist of Guthix mini game up in the Wilderness offers a good deal of experience and the possibility of earning tokens to spend on fascinating items such as a green dragonhide coif, which I had not yet found fully charged, and runecrafting gloves which would offer me more experience per rune crafted.

Obviously, I unwittingly decided to try the Fist of Guthix.

Guthix is a superior being like Saradomin and Zamorak. The three of them represent three different base attitudes toward life. Saradomin is the god of Order, and has the largest number of good followers, while Zamorak is the god of Chaos with more notable followers of evil on his side. However, many people simply wear Zamorak items for the aesthetic quality, much like Spartan1128 who, if asked, will say he follows Saradomin while he wears a Zamorak cape, and sometimes Zamorak armor as well. Guthix, on the other hand, is the god of Balance and Nature, and has many neutral people following in his path. Or simply druids that worship nature. So, the Fist of Guthix obviously has something to do with a neutral god. This shouldn't be that bad.

I donned my dragonhide armor, strung my bow, packed my arrows, and trekked north. Crossing the ditch that separates the Wilderness from the rest of the world I continued north to find the cave of the Fist of Guthix. Inside I was directed by some priests, amid the loud clamor of people buying, selling, and boasting, to talk to the Lady Fiana. Fiana is an earwig. She was sent by Guthix to protect this site, and so she allows people to access it's power whilst limiting the number of people allowed inside at any one point. She explains the rules to me, which seem simple enough, and then allows me to enter the site.

Adrenaline. It forces me to review the rules I've heard again and again. I was told there would be two rounds per game. I would be randomly paired with someone and given a role as either hunted or hunter. As hunted I would need to pick up a magic rock along the edge of the arena to gain charges, yet I would be severely weakened. As hunter I wouldn't be as weakened and I would need to find the person I was hunting and kill them. This was to be a safe game, though, and no one would lose any items as a result of their death. This seemed easy enough.

Entering the arena, I was first the hunted. I picked up a rock and ran to the center of the arena where I could hide the easiest amidst the multitudes. There were 248 people besides my hunter and myself, yet I managed to hide for but a few moments before I was quickly killed. The next round started and I braced myself to return to the center of the arena, amongst all the explosions of magic and gathering of charges. The noise was deafening and there was so much happening that it took me long minutes to find my target and begin to attack him. No wonder he'd killed me so fast, he was a very high level. Several games continued like this. For every game I lost I received one token, for every game I won I got no more than five or six. I felt tension rising and finally I could not bear to enter the games a single time more. I redeemed my tokens for the shopkeeper to charge a worn out dragonhide coif I'd bought recently and all but ran from that cave.

Upon reflection I recall that Guthix is a god of balance, so why, therefore, was I often paired with players at least ten if not twenty or thirty levels higher than myself? I shall have to train much more before I attempt to gain any level of prestige in this game. However, it did give me a good amount of experience, I am finally level 50 in my Ranged skill. I'll need to see about getting my prayer levels higher so that I might be protected against more attacks from magic and arrows.

I decided to wait to play that game much again until I'm a higher level, for now, it's back to mining for me.

I have also decided that summoning a member would be a handy skill to have as a free player.

The mines were fairly low key that day, and I decided to once again attempt to mine coal. This is a difficult thing at times due to others mining the rocks you're trying to mine, but that's part of life here. I don't' really mind it so much. What I do mind, on the other hand, is rude, snide, or simply dirty remarks thrown my way as I mine things better than others do. I had picked a coal mining spot rather out of the way of the rest of traffic, as is my preference, and someone tried to take my spot. He got annoyed when he discovered I was better than him, and began taunting me.

Now, normally I ignore taunts or insults, yet there are a select few that aggravate me to no end. If I'd been in an area where it was permissible, I would have spun around and taken his head off with my pick axe, then later regretted the spilling human blood. As it was I simply surrendered my mining site to return to mining iron. He followed me, continuing to egg me on. So, I sent a message to Spartan who began to make his way to where I was.

He arrived in the most impressive attire I've seen him in yet. Being a member, he normally stays in a member world where his items are useful. If he carries his member's items into my free world, they become useless for the duration of his stay, so he normally changes into different armor and weapons, though they're no less flashy. This time he was wearing his dragon armor. The chains of the dragon mail shirt glistened in the torchlight, and the plates of the legs and boots were harder than any stone. The winged helmet he wore contrasted the scarlet armor as if he were some avenging angel, and the obsidian cape that swirled around his shoulders seemed as dark as night. The whip carried in his right hand spoke of mighty strength and speed and he held it with the familiarity of an expert while the black and crimson shield in his left hand seemed to suck up the light around it.

I had never seen him like this before. I had seen him in dragon armor with a cape of Saradomin, and a holy book in his hands. I had seen him dressed in trimmed black armor, I had seen him in Zamorak rune armor. Never had I seen this avenger who came to protect me now. I was impressed. Of course, the mocker was not impressed. There was a level 90 member right in front of him, mining the coal he tried to mine and giving him a verbal flaying for the words he'd spoken to me, and the fool remained unimpressed. However… once he left I never saw him again, so perhaps he learned to leave the diminutive girl with the protective guardian alone after that.

Spartan1128 stayed with me as I finished mining for the day. No one was going to pick a fight with him there.

Summoning a member should really be a skill.


End file.
